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JENNY WALLWORK will have special reason to step out at the ECHO Arena for next February’s European Team Badminton Championships - she will have plenty of local support.

The 21-year-old, from Leeds, is the daughter of Liverpool-born Jill, who was taught the game by her father, Jim Pringle.

Jill played in the local leagues before graduating to county badminton with Lancashire and later became an international player.

And Jenny is following in mum’s footsteps.

But she has already made an impact at England level herself, having helped her country to the silver medal at this year’s European team event. Next year, she hopes to help England go one better.

“I think it’s going to be brilliant,” said Jenny, after the official launch on Merseyside of next year’s championships at the Arena.

“To play in England in front of your home crowd, and for it to be in Liverpool, makes me and my family quite excited.”

She is keen to make the team once again, but faces a busy autumn in the build-up to the Europeans - and has recently been allocated new partners with a view to the London Olympics in 2012.

“For a lot of people, four years is a long way away, but it will come quite quickly. Our aims are to get there and do well because I always talked about winning the Olympics - it’s always been a dream of mine.

“I will play with Gabby White in the ladies’ doubles and Robin Middleton in the mixed. Both are from Leeds and Gabby only just lives round the corner from me.

“We will be going to Japan on September 6 and then we have a tour to China and Hong Kong before Christmas,” said Jenny.

“We will be busy every weekend from the end of August to get our rankings up. I want to be first or second in the doubles and at least second in the mixed.

“I competed in the Europeans in Holland this year and we lost to Denmark in the final. I played with Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg and won both my matches.”

For the first time the Europeans will be split, with the individual events taking place in Manchester in 2010 - the same year as the Commonwealth Games.

Jenny’s gran, Jean, who lives in Liverpool, accompanied her to the launch on Merseyside, which included master classes with Liverpool youngsters.

Her dad Brian, also an international, recently won the world veterans’ mixed title in Hong Kong and was runner-up in the singles. He is taking part in the European Veterans in Spain in a fortnight’s time.

..they should just be knighted....afterall, all of us want to see the new duo in action, right??..

I said in the other thread I would be surprised to see NR play until January.....BE won't play him with someone who is not going to be his full time partner and JW still needs more experience in tournaments.

There has been a buzz going around if she can be a worthy "Gail Emms" replacement. Well, she doesn't have to fill Gail's shoes because she has her own style to offer. (I still adore Gail though .) Good job, Jenny!

There has been a buzz going around if she can be a worthy "Gail Emms" replacement. Well, she doesn't have to fill Gail's shoes because she has her own style to offer. (I still adore Gail though .) Good job, Jenny!

Agree. She's impressive.She's gonna be better than Gail because she's so feisty.Look how she questioned the umpire for her oversight.That's proof of capable clear thinking under pressure.Hopefully her skills will improve fast enough so she can tick off both Robertson and Kellogg when they display British rudeness which never inspire them to play better but signals their mental collapse.

Agree. She's impressive.She's gonna be better than Gail because she's so feisty.Look how she questioned the umpire for her oversight.That's proof of capable clear thinking under pressure.Hopefully her skills will improve fast enough so she can tick off both Robertson and Kellogg when they display British rudeness which never inspire them to play better but signals their mental collapse.

Definitely! She had all the right to complain to the umpire. I loved her saying to the umpire, "Are you watching?" and "It's not a fault!" And even if her complaints were not heeded, she still continued playing well, still with grace under pressure.